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Pre-Alps, that are plastered up against the Alpine mountains proper.
Some of these younger sediments showed evidence of being reworked
by geological agents from the older Secondary series. Arduino also
erected a fourth 'ordinus', the Quaternary, for the more recent vol-
canic products such as lava, volcanic ash and tuff. This fourth category
also included the unconsolidated alluvial derived from the three older
'ordini'. Undoubtedly this category also included other similar depos-
its often found blanketing the landscape, glacial origins of which were
not recognised until nearly a century later. Arduino also recognised
that many of the rocks he observed could not be attributed to the
Flood, but were the products of many different periods which had
undergone uplift, folding and alteration. This was an important and
early observation of the dynamic nature of the Earth in which geo-
logical features were not the results of one event but the culmination
of many over some long period. Arduino, unlike Lehmann and many
others at this time, was able to disregard the time limitation effected
by the biblical Creation, and he appreciated that the Earth's time-span
was far longer, although he was unable to tell how great.
Bergman, who had studied under Carl von Linn
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(Linnaeus) at
the University of Uppsala, became Professor of Chemistry at the same
university in 1767 and wrote on a wide diversity of subjects. He was a
noted chemist, mineralogist, astronomer, and in the context of this
present discussion, a geologist. He is primarily recalled today for hav-
ing coined the term 'ammonia' for the foul-smelling gas nitrogen
hydride. In Roman times one particular ammonium chlorite deposit
in Libya was known as the salt of Amun or sal ammoniacus because it
occurred around an oasis close to the Temple of Jupiter Amun. These
deposits were produced by visiting camels as they defecated and uri-
nated. Bergman latched onto this for his name, the etymological origin
of which could mistakenly be taken to be derived from Amun the
Egyptian god of fertility. Ammonia is a great fertiliser, but this con-
nection with Amun is sadly coincidental. He does however lend his
name to the wonderful group of extinct cephalopods, the ammonites,
which were closely allied to the modern-day Nautilus. These fossils
